What New Orleans Taught Me

It’s hard to leave New Orleans when the jasmine is in bloom — especially when you’ve spent a decade learning its rhythm. The scent floats in the air like a soft spell, the sudden sweetness a harbinger of spring and the slow turning of seasons. The white flowers seem to appear all at once, adorning the tangled vines that trace the city’s fences and phone poles. A friend tells me that every city you live in is a kind of love affair. Some are short and tempestuous, others stretch across seasons, years. After 10 years with New Orleans, I finally know it is time to go. They say it takes exactly as long to move as you need it to. I think I needed that whole time to learn what this place was trying to teach me — about pace, about care, and about feeling things in your bones. PACE My first home was a house in the Irish Channel, a red camelback shotgun with too many roommates and not enough hallways. What I remember most are my neighbors sitting on their porches every day, long talks interru ... Read full article.